abstract: Research on the consequences of gang membership is limited mainly to the study of crime and victimization. This gives the narrow impression that the effects of gang membership do not cascade into other life domains. This dissertation conceptualized gang membership as a snare in the life-course that disrupts progression in conventional life domains. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Cohort of 1997 (NLSY97) data were used to examine the effects of adolescent gang membership on the nature and patterns of educational attainment and employment over a 12-year period in the life-course. Variants of propensity score weighting were used to assess the effects of gang joining on a range of outcomes pertaining to educational attainment and employment. The key findings in this dissertation include: (1) selection adjustments partially or fully confounded the effects of gang joining; despite this (2) gang joiners had 70 percent the odds of earning a high school diploma and 42 percent the odds of earning a 4-year college degree than matched individuals who avoided gangs; (3) at the 11-year mark, the effect of gang joining on educational attainment exceeded one-half year; (4) gang joiners made up for proximate deficits in high school graduation and college matriculation, but gaps in 4-year college degree and overall educational attainment gained throughout the study; (5) gang joiners were less likely to be employed and more likely to not participate in the labor force, and these differences accelerated toward the end of the study; (6) gang joiners spent an additional one-third of a year jobless relative to their matched counterparts; and (7) the cumulative effect of gang joining on annual income exceeded $14,000, which was explained by the patterning of joblessness rather than the quality of jobs. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings, as well as directions for future research, are addressed in the concluding chapter of this dissertation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Criminology and Criminal Justice 2012

O objetivo dessa dissertação é avaliar o impacto de um programa de treinamento voltado para trabalhadores, utilizando o propensity score matching, mas com dois tipos de abordagem, uma não-paramétrica e a outra semi-paramétrica. Para estimação não paramétrica foi utilizado um método proposto por Li, Racine e Wooldridge (2009) e para estimação semi-paramétrica, o modelo utilizado foi o Generalized Additive Model proposto por Hastie e Tibshirani (1990). Os resultados obtidos indicam que os dois métodos utilizados apresentam estimativas tão boas ou melhores do que quando estimadas paramétricamente. / The goal of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of a job training program using propensity score matching methods with two types of approaches: a nonparametric e another semiparametric. For non-parametric estimation was used a method proposed by Li, Racine and Wooldridge (2009) and for the semiparametric model the Generalized Additive Model proposed by Hastie and Tibshirani (1990). The results indicate that both methods provide estimates as good or better than when parametrically estimated.

Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-27T18:34:36Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação para biblioteca.pdf: 2019803 bytes, checksum: 5b2c8e4210d0dd6f5c0f10165b0c455b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-27T18:34:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação para biblioteca.pdf: 2019803 bytes, checksum: 5b2c8e4210d0dd6f5c0f10165b0c455b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-09 / A tuberculose (TB) é uma das doenças infecciosas mais antigas no mundo, e até os dias atuais ainda permanece sendo um sério problema para a saúde pública global. O Tratamento Diretamente Observado (TDO) caracteriza-se como elemento chave, no fortalecimento da adesão ao tratamento da TB e na prevenção do aparecimento de cepas resistentes aos medicamentos, uma vez que ainda existem taxas de cura inferiores a meta preconizada e um número ainda elevado de abandono do tratamento. Em Pernambuco a estratégia TDO foi implantada inicialmente pela capital Recife a partir de 2005-2007 e segundo dados, no ano de 2013 chegou a uma cobertura de 63,5% em todo o estado. Para o presente estudo foram utilizados dados secundários retirados do Sistema de Informação de Agravos e Notificações (SINAN) no período 2005 a 2014. Os resultados apontam que a maioria dos pacientes são adultos jovens do sexo masculino, não brancos, alfabetizados, moradores de zona urbana e entre as doenças e agravos o mais presente foi o alcoolismo. A taxa de incidência da TB apresentou uma média em torno de 48,6%. Os casos de óbitos, no estado, apresentou uma média de 4,3. A forma pulmonar predomina diante das demais, com uma média de mais de 4000 (85%) casos ao ano no Estado. A média de cura e abandono ficou em torno de 71,3% e 9,9% respectivamente. A realização do TDO só veio a surtir efeito no estado a partir de 2007 (53,86%) seguindo até o ano de 2014 com 60,37%.Foi observado que nos últimos 10 anos de estudo (2005-2014) a probabilidade de cura, a partir da diferença de médias entre os grupos, foi de 26% a mais para o grupo dos tratados (TDO) do que para o grupo controle (não TDO). Esses resultados são corroborados por três diferentes critérios de Matching (pareamento) via Propensity Score (escore de propensão): o vizinho mais próximo, indicando que os indivíduos submetidos ao TDO têm em média 23% de chances a mais de cura, com base nos Estratos, este percentual é de 21% e o Kernel, apresentou 23% a mais de chances de cura. / Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the oldest infectious diseases in the world, and to this day still remains a serious problem for global public health. The Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course (DOTS) is characterized as a key element in strengthening adherence to TB treatment and prevention of the emergence of resistant strains to drugs, since there are still healing rates below the recommended target and an even higher number abandonment of treatment. In Pernambuco the DOTS strategy was implemented initially by Recife capital from 2005-2007 and second data, in 2013 reached a 63.5% coverage throughout the state. For the present study were used secondary data taken from Diseases and Notifications Information System (SINAN) in the period 2005 to 2014. The results show that most patients are young, adult males, not white, literate, urban residents and among the diseases and disorders the most present was alcoholism. The TB incidence rate in PE averaged around 48.6%. The cases of deaths, in the state, showing that PE is an average of 4.3. The pulmonary form predominates on the others, with an average of more than 4000 (85%) cases per year in the state. The average healing and abandonment was around 71.3% and 9.9% respectively. The realization of the DOTS only came to take effect in the state from 2007 (53.86%) followed by the year 2014 with 60.37%. It was observed that in the last 10 years of study (2005-2014) the probability of cure from the mean of difference between the groups was 26% higher for the group of treated (DOTS) than for the control group ( not DOT). These results are supported by three different criteria Matching by Propensity Score: the nearest neighbor matching, indicating that individuals submitted to DOTS have averaged 23% chance more healing, based on Strata this percentage is 21% and Kernel, showed 23% more chances of cure

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-07-26T20:15:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 esthergrizendegarcia.pdf: 2061658 bytes, checksum: 362dbb4c657f5be1883e9421ad02ba40 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-07-27T11:32:10Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 esthergrizendegarcia.pdf: 2061658 bytes, checksum: 362dbb4c657f5be1883e9421ad02ba40 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T11:32:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 esthergrizendegarcia.pdf: 2061658 bytes, checksum: 362dbb4c657f5be1883e9421ad02ba40 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-20 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo investigar a relação entre o estado de saúde dos indivíduos e seus rendimentos provenientes do trabalho. Indivíduos doentes podem perder produtividade em sua atividade profissional, podem necessitar se ausentar do trabalho por um período, ou até mesmo deixar de trabalhar. O estudo é realizado para o Brasil, utilizando os dados da PNAD de 2003 e 2008, que contêm o suplemento de saúde. Para a pesquisa foram selecionados apenas os indivíduos do gênero masculino com idade entre 18 e 65 anos. São criadas as variáveis estado de saúde e nível socioeconômico, a partir da Análise do Componente Principal (PCA). Para a investigação, utiliza-se o método Propensity Score Matching (Escore de Propensão). Os indivíduos não saudáveis (grupo de tratamento) estão pareados com um subgrupo de indivíduos saudáveis (grupo de controle) a fim de obter atributos semelhantes de ambos os grupos, em que a única característica que os diferenciam é a condição de saúde. O estudo utiliza três tipos de pareamento: Vizinho Mais Próximo (Nearest Neighbor Matching), Pareamento por Raio (Radius Matching) e Pareamento por Kernel. Em seguida, utiliza-se o modelo minceriano para mensurar o retorno salarial. Os resultados da pesquisa demostram que o estado de saúde é relevante para explicar rendimentos do trabalho principal. Considerando os três métodos de pareamento, os indivíduos não saudáveis auferem em torno de 13,2% a 21% a menos que os indivíduos saudáveis. Esse efeito é corroborado quando os resultados são estimados pela combinação do método de pareamento com regressão linear, indivíduos não saudáveis auferem, em média, rendimentos entre 11,75% e 15,9% menores que os rendimentos de indivíduos saudáveis. / This study aims to investigate the relationship between the health status of individuals and their income from work. Ill patients may lose productivity in their professional activity, they may need to be absent from work for a period, or even stop working. The study is conducted for Brazil, using the PNAD data of 2003 and 2008, which contain the health supplement. For the research were selected only male subjects aged between 18 and 65 years. The variables health and socioeconomic status, from the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are created. For research, we use the propensity score matching method (Score Propensity). Non-healthy individuals (treatment group) are matched with a subset of healthy individuals (control group) to obtain similar attributes of both groups, wherein the unique feature that distinguish them is the health condition. The study uses three types of pairing: Nearest Neighbor (Nearest Neighbor Matching), pairing by Radius (Radius Matching) and pairing by Kernel. Then you use the mincerian model to measure the wage returns. The survey results demonstrate that the health status is relevant to explain income of the main job. The survey results show that, considering the three methods of matching, unhealthy individuals earn 13.2% to 21% less than healthy individuals. This effect is higher considering the regression model combined with matching, unhealthy individuals earn, on average, around 11.75% and 15.9% lower than the healthy individuals.

The Zambian government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO), provides maize seed and fertilizers to farmers at heavily subsidised prices under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP). MACO’s narrow evaluation of FISP, based on estimated production without quantifying the significant changes in production and other critical socioeconomic factors, fails to adequately highlight and service the benefits of subsidies to intended beneficiaries. Furthermore, MACO estimates of the impact of FISP never consider the question of how much beneficiary farmers would have produced in its absence, leading to potentially misleading assessments. The key question addressed in this study is whether using more rigorous econometric methods that account for heterogeneity in socioeconomic factors between participants and non-participants would still confirm the positive impact of FISP on maize productivity and poverty reduction, hence justifying the huge government expense on the programme. The study utilised cross-sectional data obtained from 497 randomly selected households, collected in 2011 from six provinces of Zambia to assess the causal effect of FISP on beneficiary households’ maize yields and asset accumulation. The data was analysed using well-grounded matching techniques that account for differences in observable characteristics between programme participants and non-participants. The study also tested for possible unobserved selection effects using the Rosenbaum bounds. The results indicated that participating in FISP increased maize yields and assets accumulation and hence might directly or indirectly positively affect beneficiary poverty levels. There were also no influences of unobserved characteristics on the estimated maize yield and asset level differences between participants and non-participants. On average, FISP increased maize yields by about 451 kg per hectare, with an improvement of about 0.5 on the wealth index (score used to rank households according to asset levels). The positive impact on maize yields and asset accumulation on the participating farmers therefore justifies government’s continued implementation of FISP. / Dissertation (MScAgric)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MScAgric / Unrestricted

I examine the impact of a health insurance program for the poor implemented in Indonesia in 2005 on labor supply and informal work measured by employment status outside of the private and public formal sector. As a first step to its ambitious plan for universal coverage, this program extended subsidized health insurance coverage to a large proportion of Indonesia’s poor and near-poor population. Using a rich longitudinal survey, I estimate the average treatment effect on the treated using a combined propensity score matching method with difference in differences. The richness of the data allows me to control for a set of observable characteristics used by the government to allocate the benefit as well as an extensive combination of controls at the individual, household and community level. I find a significant negative impact on labor supply. This impact is driven by women, both at the intensive and extensive margin of labor supply. These results are in line with the fact that individuals with higher value for health insurance are more inclined to modify their labor market behavior. This decrease in labor supply has important policy implications as it may cause a negative impact on economic development, poverty and socioeconomic status of women. The results are not suggestive of an impact on informality. This lack of an effect on informal status is encouraging for developing countries in the verge of implementing universal care reform.

This note proposes the continuous treatment approach as a valuable alternative to propensity score matching for evaluating economic effects of merger and acquisitions (M&As). This framework allows considering the variation in treatment intensities explicitly, and it does not call for an arbitrary definition of cutoff values in traded ownership shares to construct a binary treatment indicator. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach using data from European M&As and by relying on the example of post-M&A employment effects. The empirical exercise reveals some heterogeneities over the whole distribution of acquired ownership shares and across different types of M&As and country groups.

Background: Current cesarean delivery (CD) rates in many industrialized countries are well above the recommended rates. Objective: The overall goal of this thesis was to identify sources for unnecessary CD. Specific objectives were to: 1) analyze the leading indications for CD and their associations with neonatal outcomes; 2) compare adverse birth outcomes between elective primary cesarean delivery (EPCD) and trial of labor after vaginal birth (TOLAV), and between elective repeat cesarean delivery (ERCD) and trial of labor after cesarean birth (TOLAC); and 3) assess the cost-effectiveness of ERCD and TOLAC. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Leading indications for CD were analyzed and risks of neonatal outcomes between “soft” indications and “hard” indications were compared first, using 2006 to 2013 Better Outcomes and Registry Network Ontario data. A pair of analyses: comparing risks of adverse birth outcomes between EPCD and TOLAV and between ERCD and TOLAC, were then conducted using United States 2005 to 2010 birth registration data. Analysis were performed using logistic regression and propensity score matching models. Finally, a cost-effectiveness analysis between ERCD and TOLAC was performed. Results: The single largest contributor for overall CD was ERCD (34.3%) and for primary CD was dystocia (31.9%) in Ontario. Compared with infants of mothers with CD for “hard” indications, the risks of Apgar score <7 at 5 minutes for infants of mothers with CD for non-reassuring-fetal-status was increased, while the risks of Apgar score <7 at 5 minutes and neonatal death for infants of mothers with ERCD and dystocia were decreased. Compared with infants of mothers who underwent TOLAV, infants of mothers who underwent EPCD were more likely to require antibiotics and ventilation support, but less likely to have birth injury. On the other hand, compared with infants of mothers who underwent TOLAC, infants of mothers who underwent ERCD were less likely to require antibiotics and ventilation support. ERCD was similar to the TOLAC birth option in terms of cost effectiveness. Conclusions: Tight up criteria for “soft” indications such as labor dystocia could result in substantial reduction in CD without harming the infants.

Non-inferiority tests are well developed for randomized parallel group trials where the control and experimental groups are independent. However, these tests may not be appropriate for assessing non-inferiority in correlated one-to-many matched data. We propose a new statistical test that extends Farrington-Manning’s (FM) test to the case where many (≥1) control subjects are matched to each experimental subject. We conducted a Monte Carlo simulation study to compare the size and power of the proposed test with tests developed for clustered one-to-one matched pair data and tests based on generalized estimating equations (GEE). For various correlation patterns, the sizes of tests developed for clustered matched pair data and GEE-based tests are inflated when applied to the case where many control subjects are matched to each experimental subject. The size of the proposed test, on the other hand, is close to the nominal level for a variety of correlation patterns. There is a debate in the literature regarding whether or not statistical tests appropriate for independent samples can be used to assess the statistical significance of treatment effects in propensity-score matched studies. We used Monte Carlo simulations to examine the effect on assessing non-inferiority via risk difference when a method for independent samples (i.e. FM test) is used versus when a method for correlated matched samples is used in propensity-score one-to-many matched studies. If propensity-score matched samples are well-matched on baseline covariates and contain almost all of the experimental treated subjects, a method for correlated matched samples is preferable with respect to power and Type I error than a method for independent samples. Sometimes there are more experimental subjects to choose from for matching than control subjects. We conducted a Monte Carlo simulation study to compare the size and power of the previously mentioned tests when many (≥1) experimental subjects are matched to each control subject. In this case, the Nam-Kwon test for clustered data performs the best in controlling the type I error rate for a variety of correlation patterns. Therefore, the appropriate non-inferiority test to use for correlated matched data depends, in part, on the sample size allocation of subjects.

Thesis advisor: Henry I. Braun / Sponsored by OECD, PIAAC represents the first attempt to assess adult problem solving in technology-rich environments (PS-TRE) on an international scale that is comparable cross-culturally and cross-nationally. The objectives of this study are to study (1) the distributions of PS-TRE proficiency scores across 14 selected countries and (2) within each country, the associations between PS-TRE proficiency scores and the different formats of adult education and training (AET) participation. Using data on full-time professionals (at least 25 years old) from these countries, propensity score weighting was applied to estimate the associations between the different formats of AET participation and their PS-TRE proficiency scores. To place these estimates in context, parallel analyses were conducted – one with the sample of full-time associates in the 14 selected countries and the other with full-time professionals’ Literacy and Numeracy proficiency scores as measured by PIAAC. The results showed that after controlling for socio-demographic background, occupational categories, use of key information-processing skills (both at home and at work), as well as use of generic workplace skills, no consistent pattern was found across the 14 selected countries. At the individual country level, scattered significant relationships were identified. For example, in Denmark, both formats of AET participation (vs. None) are significantly and positively associated with full-time professionals’ PS-TRE proficiency scores and their probability of scoring in the top quartile of the PS-TRE distribution (p < .01). While in the United States, Formal AET (vs. None) is significantly and positively associated with full-time associates’ PS-TRE proficiency scores and their probability of scoring in the top quartile of the PS-TRE distribution (p < .01). The variations in relationships between the different formats of AET participation and working adults’ skills proficiency across domains and samples indicate the necessity of conducting qualitative research on AET programs in individual countries. Furthermore, to provide recommendations tailored to the specific needs of each country, a fine-grained classification of AET programs based on the OECD guideline was suggested. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.